FLATLAND
Six people,
20 days, an expedition into 2 dimensions.
Plan Page ........update: April 6, 2007
GOTO Face Page ---This is where we were introduced
GOTO Planning Wiki-site---This is were we work out plans
Life is an elaborate, overlapping series of structures: work, family,
sports, government, religion, etc. Each of these provides and limits
the space in which we conduct the frequently banal business of living.
They are taken so much for granted that they seem to us inherent and immutible.
What happens when you examine them? By stripping away what we take
for granted, are we able to examine the underlying impulses that drive
these constructs? Can we re-construct them in a different way?
In this semi-extreme performance, 6 curious artists strip away not only
most of modern life's familiar structures, but an entire dimension: they
have elected to inhabit a structure that effectively forces them to live
in 2 dimensions.
The structure is 4 stories high, 24 feet wide, and 24 inches deep, covered
in transparent plastic (vinyl). It resembles a terrarium or "ant
farm" and is inspired by the 19th century science fiction novel it
is named after, "Flatland".* *(note: Flatland is a very short
novel and you can read the whole thing on-line at http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~banchoff/Flatland/
).
The structure is outfitted by the participants to accommodate their individual
notions: thus the transparent 2-dimensionality of the structure becomes
a map of their needs and activities. Also, the 2 dimensional shape of
their environment forces their activities to adapt in special ways; for
instance, in order to pass one another, they must go above or below; there
is no room to go "around".
The participants will be profiled and have personal web pages to post
reports and receive communications. Each is a working artist or writer
and will attempt to develop projects during the piece. Inhabited by six
creative and strong-willed people, the space limitations will require
participants to balance their individual needs with those of the others
and the group.
The project will be monitored by an array of video cameras, displaying
interesting close-up views of the interior and macro views of the unfolding
patterns of the "flat screen" the entire structure forms. There
should be a live webcam.
The rules are simple: stay in the box. When participants leave the box,
they can not re-enter. There is no pressure to stay for a long time; when
a participant has had enough, they just leave. The project is completed
in 20 days or when everyone has left, whichever comes first.
This piece has
references to the Biosphere project, to reality TV such as Big Brother,
and to costumed adventure movies in the tradition of "Mission to
Mars", and super hero comic books. There is a direct ancestry to
installation projects such as "Mir2", "the Tunnel",
and "We Have Mice".
The first drawing shows 3 floors, but that has changed now. The new configuration is 4 floors, and only 70% as wide.The toilet/shower room will be on the second floor in order to access an available drain, and the food fixing area will be right above that on the third, for the same reason. The colored spaces are for storage. There will be forced air ventilation.
A lot of thought needs to go into the organization of the space, because we need to live together happily, be able to work, relax, be private, eat, and sleep. If you multiply it out, we are starting with 146 Sq ft; that's like 6 people in a 12 X 12 foot room for 3 weeks. Ingenuity can stretch out those odds, and that is what this is all about. Like sleeping shelves, for a starter. I think it might be interesting, after a while, to build up and sideways (but keeping in the same plane) like growing roots.
I think we could schedule "shipments" as if we were being supplied by an occasional supply ship, say on a once every 3 days schedule, if you get your order in on time. They would bring us food, materials, things we've thought of.
To do the piece I think we will need a week to engineer and construct it, and probably good to have 5 days before that to bring stuff together, and I would say if you have special ideas, you should begin preparations for those even before.
Imaginary schedule would be:
gather together April 16
start construction April 18
begin to live in April 28
emerge May 20
